Sen. Wyden slams Wall Street bailouts

Speaking out against the popular narrative that those bailouts saved the world's financial infrastructure from self-destruction, Wyden suggested they came at the direct expense of small-town America.

"What too big to fail really means is communities like Newport are too small to succeed," he said. "If you do something irresponsible in Newport is the federal government going to rush in here to bail you out? Of course not."

"What those bailouts were all about was one thing and that was advancing of too big too fail," said Wyden at a town-hall meeting,as reported by Yamhill County, Ore., website NewsYamhillCounty.com. "To big to fail basically says if you have a lot of money and you have a lot of lobbyists and you do a bunch of irresponsible stuff you can do it and you can just come to the Congress and say 'oh my goodness, look how big and powerful we are' and you can get bailed out."